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1967 Camaro convertible (courtesy GM archives).

Once eliminated from an automaker’s roster, it’s not often that a nameplate makes a comeback.
There are, of course, exceptions. I can think of the Chevrolet Malibu, which disappeared in 1983 before returning in 1997, and in more recent times the Dodge Charger and Challenger.
And in a few more months, after an absence of seven years, you’ll once again be able to buy a Chevrolet Camaro.
The Camaro was introduced on Sept. 29, 1966 as a 1967 model. Along with its sister, the Pontiac Firebird, it was General Motors’ answer to Ford’s wildly popular Mustang. Although Chrysler actually got the Plymouth Barracuda to market first, in 1964, it wasn’t until Camaro and Firebird made their belated debuts that the pony car wars were on in earnest.
Four generations of Camaros were built before production ceased in 2002. From 1992, those fourth generation Camaros were assembled only in Canada, at the now demolished GM plant in Ste. Therese, Que. The 2010 Camaros will be built exclusively by GM Canada in Oshawa.
After several delays, pre-production cars have been seen on the roads around Oshawa for the past few months and actual production, originally slated for February, is now scheduled to begin in mid-March, with cars arriving at dealer showrooms in April and May.
The original 1967 Camaro was offered in two series. Standard powerplant in the 123 Series was a 230 cubic inch inline six developing 140 hp at 4,400 rpm. Base engine in the 124 Series was Chevy’s 327 cu in V8 producing 210 hp at 4,600 rpm. A 295-hp, 350 cu in V8 was an option. Base transmission was a 3-speed manual, but both 4-speed sticks and 4-speed automatics were available.
The base coupe cost $2,572 U.S. and the base convertible was priced at $2,809.
The new car met with instant success and Chevrolet sold 220,900 of them that first year.


2010 Camaro as displayed at the 2009
North American International auto Show in Detroit.


Unlike the 1967 version, the new 2010 Camaro will be offered in coupe form only in three trim levels – LS, LT and SS. As in 1967, the base LS and LT versions are powered by a six-cylinder engine, this time a 217 cu in (3.6 litre) V6 capable of generating 300 hp. The SS gets a 376 cu in (6.2 L) V8 producing 422 hp. Today’s transmission choices are 6-speed manuals or automatics.
In 1967, one of the hot appearance options was the Rally Sport, or RS, subseries which included concealed headlights, mag wheels, whitewall tires, vinyl roof and special stripes and badges. For 2010 the RS appearance package returns as an option on both the LT and SS models – but minus the vinyl roof.
There’s one other thing that the 1967 and 2010 Camaros have in common: the length of time it took to get them to the marketplace. It was 2 ½ years from concept to reality for the original car and a little longer for the new model, which was introduced to the public at the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Unfortunately, prices are a little higher now than they were in 1967. In Canada, the Camaro LS starts at $26, 995, the 1LT $27, 995, the 2LT $31,595 and the 1SS $40,995.

Write to Glen at glenwoodcock@canoemail.com

1960 Chevvrolet Impala Hardtop Sedan brought $24,200.

Usually, television viewers watch Barrett-Jackson’s annual January collector car auction from Scottsdale, Arizona with a mixture of delight, disbelief and envy.
This year, I’m sure many viewers shook their heads in bewilderment as they watched events unfold on their screens via the Speed Channel.
Because last week at Scottsdale’s Westworld Equestrian Complex, General Motors auctioned off part of its history.
In a desperate move to raise money, cash-strapped GM put more than 200 vehicles on the block from its Heritage Collection based in Sterling Heights, Mich. These cars aren’t generally available for public viewing, and I’ve only seen a few dozen of them at GM media events, but I was always impressed by how complete the collection was – from the prosaic to the profound, from one-off engineering exercises to auto show concepts.
Some of the cars on the block may seemed relatively insignificant – a 2001 Pontiac Aztek pace car from the Daytona 500, a V12-powered 1991 Chevrolet Caprice – but others are more significant – the 1984 prototype for a Pontiac Fiero 2+2, a 1918 Cadillac V8 with detachable cylinder heads, an industry first.
Some vehicles brought big money – $176,000 for a 1981 Corvette ZR-1 “Snake Skinner” coupe – but other unique one-of-a-kind models sold for used car prices.


1918 Cadillac Type 57 with V8 engine brought $32,500.

Tom Freiman, manager of the GM Heritage Centre, has been quoted as saying: “We’re thinning the herd, so to speak, but in a thoughtful way.”
Perhaps. But to me, “thinning” means watering down and the history lost in this fire sale is irreplaceable. And what will GM gain – maybe $7 or $8 million? A drop in the bucket considering it’s losing billions every month.
I’m not alone in my concern. This comment on the Jalopnik.com website is typical of the reaction found online: “To me, this auction represents the decline of the American car industry more than any of the other news. It makes me sickeningly sad, because this would be the most amazing thing to have if the industry were to disappear. By selling everything off, it could vanish without a trace. I know that they are keeping the more important models, but this still makes me wretch.”
“They should keep anything older than 1980,” wrote another. “Just out of principle.”
The sale may have been planned for some time, but with GM struggling to get consumers to buy its cars and trucks the optics of staging it now are as bad as when chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner flew to Washington on his private jet to appeal to Congress for a taxpayer-funded bailout.
Sure, 200 cars is only a small percentage of the 1,000-plus in the collection, and many of them are newer models. But it makes me think of a family, desperate for cash, that starts to pawn the family jewels. It begins with the newest, least important items and ends up hawking grandma’s heirloom pieces. Once begun, it’s a slippery slope. In fact, more vehicles from the Heritage Collection will be sold in April at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Palm Beach, Fla.
And what happens if the recession lasts longer than predicted and it’s another year or two before GM can turn things around? I mean, what part of its history goes on the block next?
Or am I overreacting when entire GM divisions such as Saturn, Saab and Hummer are up for grabs?
A complete list of cars sold at the Scottsdale collector car auction, and prices realized, can be found at www.barrett-jackson.com.

Write to Glen at glenwoodcock@canoemail.com

One of the great benefits of my friendship with automotive historian Ron Good is that every now and then I’m the recipient of some good stuff when Ron decides it’s time to thin out his collection. (Or, more to the point, when his wife, Sandra, decides it’s time for him to thin out his collection.)
That’s how I recently became the new owner of a book titled Those Wonderful Old Automobiles written by Floyd Clymer.
The name will mean nothing to younger readers, but for those of us tottering off toward geezerdom, Clymer was a popular automotive writer and author in the 1940s and ’50s. Indeed, the book I got from Ron was published in 1953.
It’s a lighthearted, yet informative, look at some of the cars, trends and accessories that were popular at the dawn of the motoring age.
There also are sections on “The Survivors” – automobiles that were around in the early days and which still totalled 21 nameplates in 1953. Today, that list of survivors has shrunk to nine – 10 of you count Willys, whose Jeep brand lives on as part of Chrysler Corp.
But what really fascinated me were the sections on early automotive advertising that sold everything from the cars themselves to accessories and fashions.
More than anything, they show how times have changed – and purely for the better!
For instance, in 1906, the “Long Distance Siren” from Sterk Manufacturing Co. of Chicago promised to clear the way, give you the road and prevent accidents.” No longer would you have to “slow down because you fear the driver of the vehicle ahead has not heard that insignificant ‘toot’ of the bulb horn you use.” A good idea, but unfortunately for Sterk, progress soon caught up with their hand-cranked siren in the form of the electric horn.
In 1910, the Metzger Automatic Windshield kept off “the cold wind in winter” and shielded you “from discomfort in summer.” And it could be operated with one hand – up or down – without stopping the car! However, it too was rendered redundant by progress when speeds increased to the point where a fixed windscreen was a necessity.
Or how about a windproof, waterproof, oilproof and dustproof auto robe from W.B. Riley & Co. of Philadelphia? Just what the doctor ordered to keep you warm and dry in those early days when open cars were far more numerous than closed models.
One invention that did catch on was the spare wheel developed by Jeffery motor cars of Kenosha, Wis. “All 1909 four-cylinder Ramblers are fitted for the Rambler spare wheel,” their ad says. This was “a wheel complete, excepting hub centre, with an inflated tire. Can be substituted for front or rear wheels within three minutes time.”



But my favourite is the ad from Bosco, Inc., of Akron, Ohio, which trumpets a way to “PROTECT YOUR CAR AGAINST THEFT.” The ad says that “Locks may be picked or jimmied … but no thief ever attempted to steal a car with a man at the wheel.” Hence, the Bosco Collapsible Rubber Driver – “so lifelike it is terrifying.” The price was $15 – a lot of money back then.
In more modern times, inflatable rubber dolls have been used not to scare off thieves, but to dupe police into believing more than one person is in the car so it can use the high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane on superhighways.
Those rubber passengers don’t work now, and I doubt the collapsible rubber driver worked back then. Just another example, though, that when it comes to automotive inventions, the more things change the more they stay the same.

Write to Glen at glenwoodcock@canoemail.com

Dr. Barbara Atwood with her 1929 Duesenberg Model J
Convertible Coupe, body by Fleetwood. (RM Auctions)

A common thread that binds old car clubs together across North America is the pitiable attempt by us men to get our wives involved in their hobby too. That’s why on most club rosters a car is listed as being owned by John and Mary Smith when, in fact, it’s John’s vehicle – he pays all the bills, does all the work and all of the driving and dreaming.
There are, of course, exceptions to this rule and some women actually become as car crazy as the men. And before I get into really big trouble I have to say there are several such women in my own branch of the Antique and Classic Car Club of Canada.
But truth be known, it’s usually the husband’s car, with the wife occasionally coming along for the ride. (Very occasionally in the case of my own wife, because I didn’t install seatbelts, as she requested, when I restored my 1947 Frazer Manhattan.)
At club meetings, the men predominate, as they do at most old car shows, auctions and swap meets. Unless there are specific events designed to lure the ladies, they often stay home.
But there are exceptions, and one such was Dr. Barbara Atwood of Rockford, Ill., who died earlier this year at the age of 87.
A psychologist and one-time Vogue fashion model, Dr. Atwood was given a new 1941 Chrysler Windsor convertible by her father, who built his fortune as a supplier of automotive hardware such as hinges, seat adjusters and clutches.
Her love of this Chrysler eventually led her into serious collecting in the 1980s, especially Full Classics as recognized by the Classic Car Club of America.
Dr. Atwood thoroughly enjoyed restoring her cars and researching their histories. She became a well-known participant on the concours circuit, with six Pebble Beach wins in eight years.
“Throughout her lifetime, Dr. Atwood shared two passions – caring for animals and collecting automobiles. In the latter, she is renowned as the premier female collector of her time,” said Mike Fairbairn, executive VP and co-founder of RM Auctions, of Bleinheim, Ont. “We are delighted to have been entrusted by the Atwood Family with the task of selling this magnificent collection.”
Twenty-four of Dr. Atwood’s most important vehicles will cross the auction block at RM’s Automobiles of Arizona event on Jan. 16. Among the highlights of the sale are these cars (with pre-auction estimates in parenthesis):
* A 1929 Model J Convertible Coupe, the only known Duesenberg to have had Fleetwood coachwork installed from new ($800,000-$1 million);
* A one-off 1929 Graham-Paige Model 837 LeBaron Dual-Cowl Phaeton, built for the 1929 New York Auto Show and specially commissioned by Joseph Graham’s daughters ($200,000-$275,000);
* A 1937 Lincoln Model K Brunn Cabriolet ($130,000-$180,000);
* A 1933 Marmon Sixteen Convertible Sedan ($250,000-$325,000);
* An award-winning 1932 Stutz DV-32 Super Bearcat with body by Weymann ($300,000-$400,000).
* A 1934 Packard Super Eight Convertible Victoria ($200,000-$275,000).
The cars of the Atwood Collection will be joined by 100 other vintage automobiles when the sale commences at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix at 11 a.m. on Jan.16. For more information, visit www.rmauctions.com.

Write to Glen at glenwoodcock@canoemail.com

1941 Packard 110 convertible.

For the past three weeks I’ve written about cars that saved their companies – sometimes totally, as did the 1949 Ford and 1960 Chrysler K-cars – and sometimes only temporarily, as did the 1959 Studebaker Lark.
This week, let’s look at a car that some believe allowed its company to survive for two more decades and that others believe doomed it to ultimate failure.
That car is the Packard 110, introduced in 1936 as a 1937 model.
In 1935 the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit was drowning in a sea of red ink as the Great Depression deepened. Sales of its luxury automobiles had plummeted from 43,318 in 1929 to 6,071 by 1934. Other U.S. manufacturers of high-end autos had already gone under – Peerless in 1931, Marmon in 1933 – and Duesenberg would fail in 1937.
Packard’s answer was a new V8-powered line of medium-priced cars called the 120. Sales shot up to 52,256 in 1935 as the economy recovered. But when the economy took a downward spiral two years later and Packard brought out the even lower-priced 110 line powered by a six-cylinder engine.


The Goddess of Speed graces the 110's hood,
just as she does on senior Packards.

The 110 allowed the company to not only survive the economic downturn but helped set Packard’s all-time single year sales record of 109,518 units in 1937.
The biggest critics of the 110 are owners of the “senior series” Packards deemed worthy of the term “classic” by the Classic Car Club of America (CCCA). Many of them take umbrage at the mere existence of the 110, feeling it debased the Packard name and should have been called something – anything – else.
They believe Packard could have survived by building only luxury cars until better times arrived. They should be reminded that Pierce-Arrow, which built cars “up to a standard, not down to a price,” took its last gasp in 1938.
I’m not as mired in the past as the CCCA and think the 1941 110 convertible coupe in the accompanying photographs, owned by Don and Nancy Graham of Havelock, Ont., should be recognized as a classic.
First, it is every inch a Packard, full of that company’s craftsmanship and engineering prowess. Second, it was built in limited numbers. Third, it was designed by Howard “Dutch” Darrin, whose custom coachwork graced many a classic Packard chassis before World War II. While its upright grille is right out of the golden age of the 1930s, the rest of the body is modern revolutionary with its flowing lines free of running boards.
Don found the car about 15 years ago in Port Coquitlam, B.C., In fact, it still bears its Packard export tags showing it was built on April 18, 1941 and then shipped to Consolidated Motors in Vancouver.
The car had been given an amateur restoration in B.C, and “was painted in totally wrong colours,” Don says. Even worse, the top, interior and door panels had been lost in a fire.
Because of the car’s rarity, a little sleight-of-hand was necessary to restore the interior. The back seat is from a LaSalle and the front seat from a Chrysler coupe. Don had it repainted in the correct Wilshire green.
The restoration was completed in 2001 and the Grahams drive the car 1,200-1,500 miles a year.
The L-head six makes 100 hp and the 3-speed manual transmission is equipped with overdrive, which was a factory option. The top is vacuum operated, although Don says it needs help going up. The car rides on a 122-inch wheelbase and weighs 3,260 lbs.
The 110 was built until WW II ended U.S. auto manufacturing in 1942. It did not return when production resumed in 1946.
After an ill-fated 1954 merger with Studebaker, Packard itself disappeared in 1958.


Builder's plate shows it was meant for export to Canada.